names

I am Caucasian, and when I was in kindergarten, I made my first African-American aquaintence, who happened to have the same name as me. We were the same age and size and found that we had similar interests and beleifs. This made me believe that there was an African-Amercian version of each Caucasian in the world.

Matt Rouse

I always thought that Osama and Obama were the same people. Imagine my suprise when he ran for president! I was so confused until my parents explained to me they were different people. I was 13 at the time.

ooooooops

When I was little, I assumed (incorrectly) that all people got to choose their own nicknames, and it was only a coincidence that many of them were shorter versions of their actual names (like 'Sam' for Samantha). I thought that everyone else was just really bad at thinking up their own nicknames, and since I liked the name Jennifer so much, I decided my nickname would be Jennifer.

Sarah

I used to believe that everyone who had the same first name must also have the same middle name. My younger brother is named Matthew Scott (we call him Scott) and I assumed that every Matthew I met was also Matthew Scott. (I have an uncommon name, and never met anyone else with it and that was only more proof somehow.)

Virago

My sister used to beieve that when you become a "grown up" you change your name to an adult name. This was because adult names were like Helen or Richard and kid names were like Daniel and Nicole.

Adam

I used to think that the HON. (for example, HON. Judge Smith) meant honey. I couldn't figure out why judges seemed to be in such bad moods all the time when they had 'honey' right in their name.

Marissa

my Dad is called Gary and until a few years i thought it was short for GARAGE, i was so upset when i found the truth out . i've told my friend since and anyone called Gary we refrer to as GARAGE , they are slightly confused by us

jennychocs

My mother is french, and my name is Marie, and the french word for husband is mari, pronounced the same way as my name. I remember getting angry at my mom for naming her little girl husband!hmm...then I met other Maries...

Marie

my brother who is 2 years older than me, told me that he was king of the phillipines because his name was philip. i believed that up until i was about 7 and got more sense, though he still kept on insisting it was true...he neva gave up!

Joanna

I used to think that Alex Trebek's name was Jeapoardy.

FriarPointRider

I used to think all guys we're called "Bill". So instead of saying "Who is that man?" I would say "Who is that Bill?" My mom said that happened because at that time the only men I really was around like my grandfather, uncle and cousin were all named Bill.

Jessica

When I was little, my mom had a People magazine with Brad Pitt on the cover. The headline described him as a "ladykiller." For the longest time, I actually thought Brad Pitt had murdered a lot of women!

ChristiCO

I speak french, so when I was child and my english teacher said "usually" I used to think that she said "You, Julie" So I always thought she would talk about me and I was very shy

When I Was in the thrid grade, There was a girl in my class known as "Sam", which I thought was a peculiar name for a girl, though I soon learned that it was a nkckname for "Samantha", a name I had not previously heard of. Also in my class was a girl named "Pam", whom I'd known since first grade. I decided that, since "Sam" was a nickname for "Samantha" (in the case of the new girl I'd met, at least, and presumably whenever a girl has the name "Sam"), "Pam" must be a nickname for "Pamantha". You should have seen the strange reactions the first time I referred to Pam as "Pamantha"!

Rachel

"Dad, how come in every war movie there is always a man named Lieutenant?"

Chrisotpher

My father's name is Olav, and when I started reading I confused it with "oval" - and my Dad is not skinny, so it took me a few years to understand that I misspelled his name...

Slim Shady

For the longest time I always thought babies where borned with Name Tags. So that people knew what to called them.

Generic Name Tag

I used to beleive that someone's initials were the first two letters in their FIRST name because my brother's intials were CH and his name was Chris.

Steph

I used to believe that the name Geoff (Jeff) was pronounced Gee-off and I still sometimes mistakenly say it that way even now. Also I used to think that the name Penelope was pronouced like Pennell-lope (with the lope part sounding like antel(lope).

Heather

One Christmas, I wanted a certain doll more than anything else in the world. Every day I would tell my parents about it, or I would point it out in the store. After kindergarten one day, I came home to find a bunch of toys, including the doll, but they were all marked "ED." I cried in my room because the things I wanted were all going to some girl named Ed who I'd never even met before. I never told my mom because I wanted to be good, and Christmas morning I finally opened my presents. There were the doll and all of the other presents. My mom, amused at my surprise, proceeded to explain to me what initials were.